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INDIANAPOLIS -- With a major storm brewing in Indy, the Raptors could not chase their own dark clouds away.

Toronto, 13-36, dropped its 12th game in a row -- five off the team record in a 104-93 defeat at the hands of the 18-27 Indiana Pacers.

Coming off a heart-breaking overtime loss to Milwaukee and an unexpected thrashing by lowly Minnesota, the Raptors did their best early on to extend their losing skid but then fought hard to consistently close to within five points.

In the end, the terrible start killed them. Again.

In the first quarter, the Raptors fired up jumper after jumper and the results -- for the most shooting-challenged squad in the NBA -- was a predictable one. And unlike in Minneapolis, when the team actually played some passable defence, there was zero resistance early -- though, to their credit, the final numbers looked decent at the end because of excellent second-half defending.

Midway through the second quarter, Indiana was shoting 51.5% while Toronto shot a poor 31.4%. With six made threes to Toronto's zero, the Pacers pulled away by 20 points.

But then, led by emerging rookie Ed Davis, the team fought its way back the way it has so often this season.

A 13-0 run keyed by strong defence and intensity brought the Raptors within six at the half.

And it was Davis, perhaps the lone bright spot throughout this disastrous stretch, providing the spark.

"Way to keep us in it, rook," a member of the Raptors' bench said just prior to halftime and that was accurate.

Davis had 11 points and five rebounds in the second quarter and forced the Pacers to think twice before entering the lane.

He had averaged 7.3 points and 8.2 rebounds on 64% shooting over his previous 10 outings heading in and finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.

"(Davis) was very, very good again, he changed the game when he got in," said Raptors head coach Jay Triano.

As the Raptors battled to get their own field goal percentage up to 40%, they worked even harder to chip Indiana's back down to 40%.

The process was made more difficult by another horrid performance from the top-scoring duo of Andrea Bargnani and DeMar DeRozan.

For the third game in a row, the pair couldn't get on track offensively.

Bargnani, 14-for-47 over his past two games, was a dismal 3-for-15 in this one as was DeRozan, who was coming off of a 7-for-25 line over his past two appearances.

"That's the game right there," summed up Bargnani.

"If we go 6-for-30, we can't win. The team needs us."

Triano said he kept Bargnani in for Davis down the stretch because they needed scoring, which Davis doesn't yet provide.

But when they aren't hitting shots that they freely admit are decent looks, DeRozan and especially Bargnani are preventing the team from winning because of their failings elsewhere.

Though Triano is clearly still behind them.

"Yeah, it's my fault probably because I had to play the (crap) out of them nine games in a row because we had no other bodies and they're probably worn down a little bit," Triano said of the Raptors' struggles.

"I had to play them then, I have to play them now, they have to learn to fight through this. They're very good basketball players and they're learning how to play where they're the dominant scorers."

With each passing game, though, it gets easier to imagine general manager Bryan Colangelo finally considering cutting the cord with the maddening Bargnani -- or at least thinking down the line for when they have the depth to put him in the scoring sixth-man role many think would best serve him and his employer, given his deficiencies.

Perhaps one day it will even be Davis who provokes that final push out the door or to the sidelines?